Blinded by the fog

The forecast conditions didn't look that inspiring. It was especially hard to motivate for this weekend following the better than average surf we got last weekend. After mulling over the lackluster forecast for a few days it occurred to me that it might be the right combination for Alligators. I made the call and JB was game. There's also a lower quality but very consistent wave a short walk away that was the backup option. When we arrived before dawn we couldn't see anything through the fog. As the daylight filled in we still couldn't see more than the shore break and a little further. I decided that based on the tide, wind, and buoy readings I would paddle out blind to Alligators. The wave breaks pretty far from shore and waves breaking within sight through the fog only confused me as to where I could/should paddle out. JB was uncomfortable with the idea because he's never taken a closer look at it, let alone paddled out. There's rocks that stick out and rocks that show up when a wave pulls water off them. With the fog it was impossible to see shore. I had no problem with JB sitting on the beach because it really did seem like a sketchy situation for a first timer. I also wasn't confident there were even waves.

I paddled out and when I got past the waves I still wasn't sure where I was. I determined which side of the wave I was most likely on, so paddled in the direction that made sense. Luckily I recognized a rock and lined up off it. I've only ever surfed this spot once, so I was still trying to figure out the lineup when I saw someone paddling out through the fog. It wasn't JB, but it felt good anyway knowing I wasn't all alone. This person knew where to line-up and sat in the right spot picking off the one-wave per set that broke correctly. I was still trying to find my line between the shallow submerged rocks when two more people paddled out. At this point I felt good that at least three other people thought the conditions were right for this spot. But I was also getting frustrated that I couldn't get a wave. The same person caught all the waves, and JB was still on the beach. Even the waves that person got were not all that great looking. I decided I'd take a wave in and head to the other spot with JB. I didn't even catch a wave in and instead paddled with occasionally getting some whitewater in.

We walked to the other spot and faced the same situation: grey-out conditions. At least this spot I'm more familiar with. But I also knew based on the buoy that the waves would be pretty big. We paddled out and tried to get lined up, but got caught by a bigger set. Paddle back out, a little further, and miss a few before getting caught again. With the fog and the shifty nature of this spot, we both were not to happy with the situation. I rode two or three waves before realizing JB was not around. I wasn't worried because this wave just pushes you to the channel, but I also wasn't excited about surfing alone. I rode one in to find him on the beach. He encouraged me to keep surfing, but I had done a good amount of paddling out/around and wasn't excited for the waves I found.
We left and grabbed breakfast, which was really good. The short distance inland where the cafe is was beyond the fog and instead warm and sunny. It almost made up for the bad day of surfing.

Fall on the CA coast

Surfers and most outdoor enthusiasts in California know how special this season is on the California coast. Winter is wild and stormy, punctuated with windows of beautiful weather. Spring is cold and windy with the remnants of winter hanging on. Summer is sometimes colder than spring with the regular onshore wind that blows most of the day. 

Fall is the best season. The cooling weather mellows out the onshore wind. The sun is still high enough to warm the days, but often a chill in the air keeps it from getting to hot. The small south swells still provide waves, but the first taste of winter northwest swells start filling in, reminding me that I need to get stronger to handle the full winter swells. The Fall swells seem to come from further away and none of the storminess comes with it. There can be warm, calm wind days with overhead waves that are surfable all day long.

This weekend was one of those times. We got out Sunday morning to find overhead sets and glassy conditions. We surfed the main reef that can be seen from the road. Even before sunrise cars were parking along the shoulder of Highway 1. We decided to grab a few waves before the crowd filled in, with a backup plan to go to the more hidden reef later. As it turned out, there never was much of a crowd with good vibes and plenty of waves to go around. JB and I got a taste of winter with some 8' sets catching us. Well mostly catching me because JB was sitting on the wide peak and was able to catch waves off the occasional bigger sets. I opted for more waves, smaller waves, and not as good waves. It was a bad choice, but I got waves and some with the feeling of turns so hard my legs felt weak. Some late drops that compressed my legs and made my bad knee feel a twinge of pain. As usual, the first good NW swell after a summer of south swells and I feel like I really need to get back in shape!

The best part of the day was that I was more prepared than normal. My wetsuit is falling apart and my mail-order replacement didn't fit. I sent it back to get a better size, but also purchased some wetsuit shorts to keep me warm while I wait for the new suit. So I've got a 5mm worn out suit, but also a 1mm shirt and 1mm shorts underneath. This combination kept me plenty warm. I also drank a V8 right before paddling out. I normally drink one after getting back to the car but I've found this year that drinking one before surfing extends my endurance and avoids me feeling hungry before feeling tired. I surfed for 2-hours but felt like I could have surfed longer.

This week I need to exercise my knee, legs, arms, heart and lungs. I have images in my head of Sunday and the bigger waves, longer paddle, and multi-wave sets. So I have the goal in mind!

Mid-week

A friend I don't get to surf with very often call and asked if I wanted to catch the Tahiti swell mid-week. I said, "Yes!" and was stoked to show him some of the new spots JB and I have been surfing. I requested the time of work, coordinated with JB, and repeatedly checked the forecast. As quickly as things came together, they started to fall apart. JB realized how narrow his window is between drop off and pick-up of his older kid. JZ called to let me know he hurt his back on a bad fall while surfing. Well, the wind forecast still looked good and I already had the day off, so I was going with or without them.

JZ got a doctors appointment so was out, but JB was still in. We stressed a bit about maximizing our surf in his window, and exchanged messages about, "Where are you going to check first?" and "What time will you arrive?" JB checked tres and David's port and I went strait to the rock. At first I didn't like what I saw, but JB said he was willing to try the outside. I saw a good wave but didn't think much of it because I'm used to being tricked by that one perfect wave that never repeats once I paddle out. But as I was trying to get enough signal to tell JB I was going to check another spot, I saw another, then another good wave on the outside. I rewrote my message to basically say, "Come here now!"

He arrived and took a look. He said David's looked good but have a handful of people. There was nobody in the water at the rock and waves kept looking good so we suited up and hit it. We opted to paddle around the rock and even though the waves break softer along that route, it's further to paddle. On top of that we rounded the corner just as a set of many waves swung wide right at us. I was happy with how far I was able to paddle without a rest, but I did have to stop once or twice to let fresh blood back into my shoulders. I was glad I had surfed it once before because I felt like I was quickly able to figure out the line-up and pick the right waves, despite the surf being 3-times larger than the small day I rode it.

I got the first one and went right as a quick test of my knee. I dropped and kicked out pretty quickly, thinking I'd take a few strokes and be back in the take-off. Instead another wide set filled in and washed me all the way down to the end of the wave, the end of the going left wave. It took about 15-min to get back to the spot!

I took the second wave and went left. It was a steep bowl but I did okay. By this time JB was pushing himself deeper to where I was and he got some waves too. I think in all I got the biggest, but he got the longest wave by far. A few people came out and it felt a little complicated. I got a cramp in a weird part of my leg, and JB was getting worried about the time. I agreed to go in, but by way of the inside right because I thought I could handle one or two more waves there. The inside ended up being like a treadmill in a washing machine. And to top it off, I didn't even see a good wave roll through. I took whitewater to the beach just as JB was walking over from coming in after a left on the outside. We hiked up the long hill and got back to the cars early enough for JB to get home and pick up his kid on-time (instead of a little late like he thought would happen.) 

Overall it was a worthwhile trip, despite the stressors that come with being a father, employee, and husband trying to go surfing mid-week. If it had been during summer break we both could have gone super early because our wives work at schools and are home with the kids all summer. So, maybe next time, now that we know the wave a little better. And maybe next time I'll have a better board for handling the wave. I did alright on the TH, but it's not the kind of wave that board is made for.

Utilize the options

 The forecast for the past weekend was back to the great conditions we've had most of the summer. Calm morning winds, a small north wind swell, and a medium-small south swell. JB and I knew what we had to do, back to the usual!The sand at the rock was too low for us to climb over, so we had to paddle around. I brought both my TH and my mat&fins, so paddling around meant looping my leash through the swimfin straps, and putting the unrolled mat between myself and the board. It worked as well as could be expected with the fins acting like small anchors and the mat trying it's best to get away at every duck-dive. In my awkwardness I barely made it around the rock before waves started washing me back to shore. No problem, but it left JB paddling over to R's on his own. I walked up to R's and looked at G's but couldn't make much out through the fog. JB hung at R's, and I saw a wave that had potential, so I ditched the mat gear above the high tide line and paddled out. After 20-min of waiting for a good wave to come in, we each caught a set wave. Neither was any good, so we went in to walk down to G's.

I decided to start on the mat. I sat deeper over the reef and JB took up his usual spot catching the bigger ones that swing wide and roll into the cove. I managed a few steep drops but wasn't getting any connections, so all my waves were short. So short that I kept ending up over the reef as other waves came behind the ones I caught. After an hour or so of matting, my knee started to complain. The waves were still good with the dropping tide so I went to the beach and switched to the TH.

Back in the line-up I had to give myself a moment to adjust to the board. I was lower on the reef and ended up watching a few of JB's best rides of the day. I was flopping around at first, but ended up managing a few rides before my energy faded and I went in. On the walk back to the car JB and I talked about the upcoming "Tahiti" swell and trying to surf some of it Thursday. We both have kids to drop at school, so it would be a mid-morning speed session with JB rushing home after to pick-up kids after the school half-day.

Then on Sunday JZ texted and asked about surfing down where we've been scoring all summer. Yeah? JZ willing to drive? I can't pass up this opportunity, so today one of the first things I did at work was request Thursday off. It actually looks like it will get better later in the day, so if JB doesn't manage to get the morning off, JZ and I can still score some good waves around mid-day. If the wind cooperates I could get two sessions and really wear myself out!

Learning from failure

I had field work on the north coast on Friday, and so woke up early to sneak in some surfing at a new spot before starting work. I arrived before dawn and hiked the mile down to the spot. There's no way to check it that I know of except to take the hike down to it. When I got there I must have seen the best set because one or two waves were almost ridable, but those were the biggest and best I would see that day.

It's a rocky spot and I wanted to take a minute to see where the problem rocks were before suiting up and paddling out alone. I waited, but only tiny waves were filling in. Too small to catch and breaking through the rocky piles. I waiting longer, not having anything else to do with my time while I waited for the designated meeting time with my co-worker. It's a nice hidden pocket beach, and probably protected from some of the wind, but hard to get to for sure. After awhile of not a single ridable wave, I decided to run up the coast and reconnoiter another hidden spot. Even if I didn't have time to surf, I could get eyes on it and find the path down, etc. I ran into trouble with my phone not getting enough signal for the maps to work. I did my best to pick the right cove (there are so many coves and headlands!) but I missed it by one and checked out the wrong cove. By the time I figured out my mistake I was out of time to continue exploring and had to head to the work-site.

When I got home I dug into the buoy and wind data from the first time I checked the spot and the conditions of my failed attempt. The two days were very similar, so I'm going to assume the one difference was the critical difference, swell angle. It wasn't even the difference between a N and S, more like the angle of the swell was 10-deg different. So, now I know one more detail about this spot.

Then Saturday JB and I returned to the usual G. It wasn't great, but it was good enough. The weather was good and it was just the two of us. After more than a year of surfing this spot almost weekly during the smaller swells, we have only ever shared it with one other person. The adjacent spot occasionally has some people, but we've surfed that a few times too with nobody, or just one or two people out. Pretty great that we found this spot, even if it's not a great wave very often.

It's been awhile since

The spots we've been frequenting don't handle the onshores we had Saturday morning. On top of that, there was a lot of choppy junk in the water and that area looked a mess. I made the call to go to tres-mile because I'd seen it look good when the north coast looked like it did Saturday. Despite not liking 3s when its small and south swell, JB was still game. When we got to the beach there were only 4 guys out with shoulder high sets and it looked like fun! By the time we paddled to the reef there were 6 surfers, and then when I counted again, 12. Still, most people choose the end of the reef and with good reason. The waves there are always make-able and have a longer ride as the wave wraps around the edge of the reef. I prefer the less crowded middle reef which has an exciting drop and section before catching up to the lower peak and closing out. I got a handful of good waves, sharing the lonely peak with JB. As the tide filled the magic hour started and JB make the connection through the lower peak all the way to the beach. I knew it was now do-able, but people were starting to congregate at the peak we were at, and filling in the between-section in an "in-the-way" way. It all got too crowded for me, and then my calf cramped. It's an ongoing situation that when I get tired my calf will cramp and at best I can get a few more waves before it cramps so bad I can't get it to relax. Anyway, I took waves in and checked some novelties down at the sandy cove. There's potential there, but I didn't have the patience to wait for one. Someday I'll stumble across it when it's better and ride another novelty for the first time. Overall a good day when familiarity with the area paid off.

New Spot!

I motivated and got myself up at 2:30am for the drive north on Saturday. It was a long drive, but I was rewarded with a longboard wave with only one other person out. There was a light onshore wind blowing, but it was better than it looked from the beach. I especially enjoyed the opportunity to longboard without a crowd. Even so, I could tell where I surfed was no secret. It's also easy enough to get to that I imagine most people check it as routine.

After surfing I hiked to the next point south checking to see if it was surfable. Not at that time. Then I drove up and hiked to another point to see if it was surfable. Not at that time, and looked like it had less potential. After all that I went up to the well known spot and watched the fishermen and the left. The left looked really shifty and difficult. It looks like there are good rides to be had, but it would take some study to know where to sit and which ones to catch. The outside left looks challenging, and was too far away to really tell what was going on. The fact that nobody was surfing it was also a little worrisome. I didn't explore any further north.

On the drive back home I made a stop at one well-known beach. It looked like a sand-bottom beachbreak, so could be surfed. There appears to be some cover from the NW wind on the sandy beach, making it a good spot to bring the family. Then, much further south, I noticed some surfboards and wetsuits parked on a small pull-out near the "secret" spot I found last time I was in this area. In my opinion, this spot remains a secret because there is no easy way to check it. The only way I can figure is to take the 1-mile hike. Although this pull-out might make it a 1/2 mile hike. Still, I won't divulge any more about it because I like secrets.

Sunday morning I got up early again to go back to the same old spots with JB. When we arrived the conditions were perfect and we had high hopes. When we made the walk and got close enough to see the left, we were unimpressed. However, the old-man's spot looked better. So we went there. The right wasn't good and many of the lefts were also just a peak and no shoulder. However, once in awhile a bigger left would come in and roll into the sandy stretch. The sand was arranged for a nice long and fast ride. Although I never got one of them, JB got several and was smiling. It was the best he'd ever surfed at this spot. I surfed until hunger made me need to leave. JB stayed and got a few more before returning to his car. 

Nobody came to surf and I realized that some of the best surfing to be had on the coast (balancing quality, consistency, and crowds) might just be here. It really calmed my excitement about the spots to the north I had been researching. Although there's surf up there, it's not that much better than what I've been surfing lately.

Ouch, my knee!

I've been having trouble the last couple sessions getting my feet under me. The problem seems to be a weak left knee. It's the same knee that I dislocated several times as a teenager. It has always been a small problem for me, but for the last month or two, it's become a bigger problem. I did something to it several weekends ago when I surfed multiple times in a weekend. I don't know what I did, maybe just too much exeercise. But that weekend it swelled up, and it's been weak since then. It was bothering me yesterday at G's, but it wasn't stopping me. The TH was getting into the waves nicely and I was fighting my weak knee to do what I needed it to do. After two successful (but not great) rides, I decided to paddle deeper where the wave was more exciting. The first wave I went for sucked out before I got my feet all the way set and I lost control. My left foot kinda stuck to the board as my body fell and I strained my knee. I heard some noise (maybe in my head) but it wasn't painful right away. Still, I knew I did some damage and paddled back to where the waves were a bit easier. I got to my feet on another wave but after than just rode them on my belly. My knee felt okay at rest, but when swirling my feet to swing the board around, or just to stay balanced while sitting, my knee complained. I took a wave in and made the walk back down the beach careful to not put to much stress on the knee.

By the time I got back to the car, my knee was starting to tighten up. Still not painful at rest but sensitive to movement I took a single does of ibuprofin and made my way home. An hour and a half later, getting out of my car in my driveway and my knee wasn't cooperating. I'm keeping up the low-dose ibuprofin and trying to maintain mobility in my knee by walking around. But I'm also sitting at my work-from-home desk and I have a ton of work to do. I know I have field work, but nothing scheduled yet because I've been busy with office work. I hope I'll be ready to surf this weekend, but I'm not so sure this 46-year-old body will repair that quickly. So it's possible the three-day weekend will be non-surfing. Sounds like a good time to go canoeing!

Inspiration

I didn't fully utilize the "La Bomba"TM swell this weekend. I only surfed Saturday, although the wind wasn't blowing Sunday morning and I could have gone for the two days of surf. On Saturday we were afraid of the forecasted south wind and reacted more to what we thought would happen than what actually happened. We hid from the wind at sunrise Saturday. We went to the fun little novelty wave that's protected from the wind but isn't much of a wave. The outside left was working because the wind never came up. It was, at 6 people, 3x more crowded than I've ever seen it. To be fair, it's not my first, or even second choice spot, so I don't have much experience with how crowded it gets. Chatting with a guy who surfed the outside while we were on the inside he agreed that it was the most crowded he'd ever seen it in his 20+ years of surfing there. Still, I got some fun waves. I did what I consider my best cutback of the year. I'm experienced enough to know that what it felt like is not what it looked like, which brings me to some inspiration.

The Displacmentia Blog has a post today that reminds me that hulls are fun! And that hulls are not for show. I have a little 6' hull, and longboard hulls, and I bought and sold a hull that didn't work like a hull should. So I think my cutback is best felt and not seen. I wish some of the more "hull-y" waves around here weren't so crowded, or that I could find an uncrowded one.

Then the Mandala Surfboards blog has a board with a description that fits me pretty well, "super fun combination for the aging shredder or aspiring lip blaster" The only problem is, I was never much of a shredder, but I'm an aging aspiring lip blaster! The shape is not far from the Vernor TreeHugger I've been ridding, although probably more sharp around the edges and certainly for a smaller old guy.

The uncrowded waves I've been riding are a bit more challenging than what I can handle on a longboard or hull, but within my abilities on a modern, hard-railed, multi-fined board. And that's the whole point of this blog, the right board for the right conditions. :) 

Great Weekend

A south swell in the water and spring tides high in the morning so JB and I got to the beach closer to dawn than first light. Our first waves were at a spot I've purposely not discussed publicly. Although it's visible from the road, the somewhat transient nature of the Scott's Creek bar makes it sorta secret when it forms and starts working. By now, tons of people have driven past and word must be out for anyone interested. So that's where we paddled out around dawn. 

It looked great from the road. It was actually pretty shifty and soft, making it hard to get a satisfying ride. JB did better than I did, getting two "good" rides as well as several mushy ones. I only got two mushy ones and when I saw 6 more people paddling out, I took that second mushy waves to the beach. From the beach I found another peak that was hollow and nobody on it. I paddled out to it and grabbed a few close-out barrels, one in each direction. JB had joined me and didn't have as much luck. We decided to head to the reef instead.

The walk to the reef was sketchy because all the sand between the rocks is washed out right now. The tide was mid-low and we still were in water up to our chest and getting pushed around by wave surges. There were a handful of people at the first spot, mostly going left. We kept walking. The cove/channel was also devoid of sand making it more bouldery with reef peaks sticking out of the water when waves lowered the water level. Sketchy. It actually seemed safer to walk to the tip of the reef as far as possible and then paddle out sideways washing over the shallow spots and getting pushed to the outside part of the channel. I ended up at the top of the reef and got a good one. The larger ones would break a little further out and had great shape. The medium and smaller ones would bowl up and break where reef peaks would boil the face of the wave. Sketchy!

We each got a few and JB decided to move down the reef where the waves were hitting different. I stayed at the top picking carefully and not paying the price for the few mistakes in judgement. (Well, I did chip the tip of a fin on the reef duckdiving my way back out after a wipe out.) I noticed that some that swung to wide to go left looked like going right was an option. I tentatively took a right and found a pretty good wave to fill in between the more exciting lefts. I eventually got worn out and took a right to the beach. It was also sketchy, but the reef was more predictable in shape with fewer peaks and more readable ridges. When I got to the beach the tide was pretty low and I explored the tidepools to see what was there. I found lots of the same things. No purple urchins, no owl limpets, but many turban snails. I found two nearly complete, empty pink abalone shells. I decided to leave them there.

My exploring continued as JB kept getting good waves and paddling back out. I ended up back at the other reef just as the last few people were on the beach leaving. I decided to paddle out and caught a wave before JB was on the beach waiting for me this time. I caught one more with arms of jelly and just rode it to the beach. We got back to the cars and it had been nearly 5 hours of beach time!

I left that spot and met my family down at tres mile sand. It was a beautiful day, waves were good there too, and the tide was very low. I explored some of the deeper tide pools and found some of the more rare species. I was watching novelty left and it looked fun, but I was spent.

The next morning I wasn't planning on surfing but my body felt recharged enough to go get a few. I checked the reefs and the wind was just enough to kill it. I checked the landing and it looked pretty mushy. I went back to novelty lefts with a board and the 4th Gear Flyer. I didn't make the final decision until I was suited up when I decided the surf mat was the right choice. The reasoning was that the medium sized waves were getting reef peak boils on the face, and many of the waves were hit with backwash warbling the face pretty harshly. I rode nearly 10 waves of all sorts and had a pretty good novelty session. As I was getting rides I thought that this wave was pretty good on a surf mat but might be frustrating on most other surfcraft. The surf mat allowed me to enjoy these waves. I know the surf mat would have also been tons of fun up on the reef, or on any of a number of the reefs along here. 

Then Monday I took the day off work and my son and I went for a hike in the redwoods. A great weekend all around.

Pretty good actually!

With low expectations I dragged by body out of bed at 4:15. I really doubted that it was going to be worth the loss of sleep and gas money. I made my coffee and lunch and was on the road in the dark. JB and I agreed to meet at DLanding. The forecast was for smaller, short period waves and wind. We figured at least we would take a look and learn something about the spot. We learned that it wasn't good that morning. We drove up to Scott's and found the same, but that was expected. We decided to head back to the same old same, but made another recon stop along the way. We had an interesting experience at D.aves. When we parked it looked like at least one or two of the cars were not overnight sleepers but morning arrivals. We walked the main trail and saw one wave that hinted at what I thought was worth surfing. Then a guy came up from the beach trail and kinda startled us. Maybe he was down there going pee or something, I dunno.

We saw more potential, but hadn't seen anything worth it when three teenage girls came out of the trees through the path, all giggles and excitement. What in the world were these girls doing at the cold beach in the first light of day? The sun wasn't even over the hills yet! They milled about chatting until one of them had the courage to ask us, "Where is the swing?" Ah, the Instagram-able swing, that makes more sense. Maybe they were savvy enough to know that the morning is "golden hour" in the photography world and wanted to up their Instagram game. I gave them directions, and they left just before another young person came through the path. This guy was suited up with a board under his arm. We didn't see anything to surf, but he looked like he knew what he was doing so we stayed to watch. We soon figured out his game was the sideways-backwash-hits-the-incoming-wave-wedge. It was cool to watch him get wave after wave and sorta good rides, but not rides we were going to try to get.

So we headed to Tres and actually parked in our usual spots. DwnPtrl was there but nobody else was around. We opted to bring gear down because we weren't sure it was going to be worthwhile. We made an agreement that if there was anything, we would go surf. When we got there it was a little more than nothing, and DwnPtrl was heading in! We hiked down to our usual spot and went out. I opted for a long walk to the pinnacle reef. I climbed up and inspected the jump off. The waves were small, but non-stop and the edge of the reef has steps in it making it impossible (or just really risky) to jump off the top of the reef. The non-stop waves made it tricky to time a walk down the steps. I managed it by being patient.

I stopped at the top of the reef and it was starting to do the break/roll/threaten thing. I got a few fun waves and convinced JB to come up to the top. The inside wasn't great and was getting crowded, so he did join me. He got some good ones and we had it to ourselves for the most part. It lasted about an hour before it shut down, which is a pretty good little session. After it stopped working I tried to figure something out on the inside, but it was truly crowded. We went in satisfied. Even though it was only and hour I caught a good number of good enough waves and felt good about it.

Edit: Part of the inside crowd included a surfmatter on a Standard model 4th gear flyer. I stopped for a moment to chat, but the conversation was cut short by him catching a set wave and "whoosh!" off he went. I talked a bit more to his buddy on a longboard. He had tried a mat but wasn't convinced. I gave him a few hints of when/where to ride a mat to the most enjoyment, and hopefully sparked some interest. I was tempted to swap out the board for my mat but it's a pretty long walk and the chances were good that he'd be gone by the time I returned. Anyway, good to see variety out there.